Faculty News

Endowed Professorships

The Pratt School of Engineering is honored to recognize the generous support of alumni and friends through endowed professorships.

Chairmanship

• W. H. Gardner, Jr., Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Lawrie Virgin

Bass Professorships

• Addy Family Professorship - Vacant
• Anderson-Rupp Professor of Biomedical Engineering – Roger Barr
• W. H. Gardner, Jr. Associate Professorship in Civil and Environmental Engineering - Henri P. Gavin
• Theodore Kennedy Professorship – Vacant
• Sternberg Family Professorship - Vacant
• James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Professorship - Wanda Krassowska
• Jeffrey N. Vinik Professorship - Steven Cummer
• Mary Milas Yoh and Harold L. Yoh, Jr. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Lori Setton

Full/Associate Professorships

• Michael J. Fitzpatrick Professorship – Vacant
• Gendell Family Professorship of the Practice – Vacant
• Gendell Family Associate Professorship of the Practice - Vacant
• R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Tuan Vo-Dinh
• Hogg Family Directorship of Engineering Management/Hogg Family Entrepreneurial Professorship - Jeff Glass
• Fitzgerald S. Hudson Professorship - Kishor Trivedi
• J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering - Adrian Bejan
• J.A. Jones Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Nan Marie Jokerst
• Thomas Lord Professorship - Olaf von Ramm
• Lord-Chandran Professorship – Rob Clark
• Nortel Networks Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Jungsang Kim
• Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School Professor of Engineering-1 – Vacant
• Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School Professor of Engineering-2 - Vacant
• Nello L. Teer, Jr. Professorship - David Katz
• Williams-Hessee Associate Professorship of the Practice -

Nicholas Challenge Full Professorships

• Randolph K. Repass and Sally-Christina Rodgers University Professorship - Vacant
• Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professorship - Vacant
• William H. Younger Professorship - Larry Carin

Misc. Full Professorships

• William Bevin Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - David Smith
• James B. Duke Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Kam Leong
• Pfizer, Inc./Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. University Professor Emeritus – Vacant

Faculty Support

• Augustine Family Scholar – David Smith
• Alfred M. Hunt Faculty Scholar – Stefan Zauscher
• Phillip Jackson Baugh Scholar - Martin Brooke

Eponymous Professorships

• Julian Francis Abele Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science - Named after Julian Francis Abele, the first African-American to graduate from the Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts and Architecture in 1904. Upon graduation, he joined the firm of Horace Trumbauer, who sent Abele to Paris to study at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, from which he graduated in 1906. By 1909, Abele was the chief designer in the firm of Horace Trumbauer & Associates, the architectural firm that designed many of the buildings on Duke University's West Campus, including the chapel and the Allen Administration Building. Along with many houses for the elite of Northern society, the Trumbauer firm designed the residences of James B. Duke in New York City, and Somerville, NJ. Presumably that is why the firm received the commission to design the new university bearing the Duke name. Additionally, Abele is credited with designing the Widener Library at Harvard University, and Philadelphia's Free Library and Museum of Art. He is considered the first major African-American architect in the United States. Pratt professor: Kenneth C. Hall

• John Cocke Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - John Cocke (May 30, 1925 – July 16, 2002) was an American computer scientist recognised for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. He is considered by many to be "the father of RISC architecture." He attended Duke University, where he received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1946 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1953. Cocke spent his entire career as an industrial researcher for IBM, from 1956 to 1992. Perhaps the project where his innovations were most noted was in the IBM 801 minicomputer, where his realization that matching the design of the architecture's instruction set to the relatively simple instructions actually emitted by compilers could allow high performance at a low cost. Cocke won the ACM Turing Award in 1987, the National Medal of Technology in 1991 and the National Medal of Science in 1994. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and died in Valhalla, New York. - April Brown

• William Holland Hall Professor of Mechanical Engineering - Named after William Holland Hall, Dean of the College of Engineering at Duke from 1939-1953. Hall was an early champion of engineering education at Trinity College (Trinity was later renamed as Duke University). He joined the faculty of the Department of Engineering in 1914 and became the first dean of the College of Engineering in 1939. At one point during his early tenure at Duke, he comprised the entire staff of the engineering department. For many years, Hall battled against the perception among the administration that engineering education was not worthy of the same level of support as that given to law, business, medicine, religion and forestry. Despite his protests to the contrary, the University administration did not give credence to the technical advances and progression of the profession of engineering during the years after World War I, resulting in engineering education at Duke falling well below the national standard. With perseverance and dedication, Hall consistently championed the merits of engineering education, resulting in the formation of the Division of Engineering in 1937 and the College of Engineering in 1939. In the wake of World War II, Dean Hall led the College through a period of major growth and continued to do so until his retirement in 1954. - Earl H. Dowell

• James L. Meriam Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Dr. James L. Meriam was appointed dean of engineering at Duke in 1963 until 1969. There were many changes during that time for the betterment of the Engineering College, in which he was a significant factor. The college was named the School of Engineering in 1966 and the school's first black students graduated two years later. The Division of Biomedical Engineering was established in 1967 and in 1971 it became the first biomedical engineering department at a U.S. university. Dr. Meriam was well known for his long association with the Mechanics Division of ASEE. He was a past Division chair and recipient of the Division Outstanding Educator Award. In 1992, ASEE bestowed upon him the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award. Dr. Meriam received his three degrees from Yale University, served in the U. S. Coast Guard during World War II, and had early industrial experience with both Pratt and Whitney Aircraft and General Electric. During his long career, he served at the University of California – Berkeley where he was Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies, at Duke University where he was Dean of Engineering, at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and at the University of California – Santa Barbara. Recognition of his superb teaching abilities followed him wherever he went. He began his Engineering Mechanics textbook series in 1950. The Statics and Dynamics texts reconstructed undergraduate mechanics and became the definitive textbooks in the field for the next five decades and several are still used today. In addition to the U.S. versions, the books have appeared in SI versions and have been translated into several foreign languages. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Meriam will long be remembered for his friendliness, gentlemanly demeanor, mature judgment and leadership, generosity, and absolute commitment to high educational standards. Dr. Meriam passed away July 18, 2000. - Mark Wiesner

• Theo Pilkington Professor of Biomedical Engineering - Theo Pilkington is the founder of Duke's biomedical engineering department. Pilkington received his engineering Ph.D. from Duke and used computers and mathematics to study the heart's electrical activity. By the end of the 1960's, he was heading a biomedical engineering program in Duke's electrical engineering department. Then in 1971, biomedical engineering became its own department, with Pilkington as its first chairman. Pilkington went on to found and lead another pioneering Duke-based program: an Engineering Research Center for Emerging Cardiovascular Technologies, funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, as well as by industrial affiliates. He died in 1993 at the age of 57. - Ashutosh Chilkoti

• Robert Plonsey Professorship of Biomedical Engineering - Robert Plonsey is Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering. He joined the faculty in 1983. Even after his retirement in 1996 as the Pfizer Inc./Edmund T. Pratt Jr. University Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering, he continues to be involved in the BME department and still available for faculty and students. He is well respected in the biomedical engineering field. Most recently, he received a distinguished service award from the BME Society at the 2004 annual meeting in Philadelphia. Also, in 2004 he was the recipient of the prestigious Ragnar Granit Prize for his contributions to promoting bioelectromagnetism and biomedical engineering at an international level. He was cited for his work as honorary president of the International Society of Bioelectromagnetism, his book on the subject, and his many preconference and graduate courses. His continuing research interests are in modeling applied to electrocardiology, electrophysiology and functional electrical stimulation. He is author or co-author of several books on electromagnetic theory and bioelectromagnetism. Dr. Plonsey has served on committees and been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Research Council and the Whitaker Foundation. From 1970 to 1972 he was President of IEEE/EMBS and from 1990 to 1991 Vice President for Technical and Conference Activities. In 1992 he was co-program chair for the IEEE/EMBS annual conference (Paris, France). Dr. Plonsey was president of the BME society in 1981 and 1982, and has served as a board member for the society. He is a Fellow of AAAS and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 1997 he was presented the Merit Award by the IUPESM and is a Founding Member of the AIMBE and the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering of the IFMBE. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. From 1957 to 1983, he was with Case Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, where he was first a member of the Electrical Engineering Faculty and then one of the founders of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. From 1976 to 1980, he served as Department Chairman. - Vacant

• Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering - Named after Aleksandar S. Vesic, Dean of the College of Engineering from 1974 to 1982. Vesic was a professor of civil engineering at Duke prior to becoming dean. In honor of his efforts to expand the engineering school, Duke named the Vesic Library for Engineering, Mathematics and Physics after Aleksandar, who died in 1982. Pratt professor: Henry Petroski